Rotary web-press.



PATENTBD MAY 21, 1907.

H. F. BBC-HMAN. ROTARY WEB PRESS. APPLIOATIOH nun saw. 1. 1000.

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PATENTED MAY 21, 1907.

H'. F. BEGHMAN. ROTARY WEB PRESS.

APPLICATION rILnn SEPT. 1. 1900..

5 SHBETBSHEET 8.

PATENTED MAY'21, 1907.

P- BBGHMAN.

ROTARY WEBPRESS. APPLICATION rmm snrr. 1. 1900.

5 slums-sum No, 854,142. PATENTED MAY 21, 1907. H. P. BEGHMAN.

ROTARY WEB PRESS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 1. 1906.

6 SHEETS-SHEET 6.

nying drawings, whic UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY F. BEOHMAN, OF BATTLE CREEK, MICHIGAN, ASSIGNOR TO DUPLEX PRINTING PRESS COMPANY, OF BATTLE CREEK, MICHIGAN, A CORPORA- TION or MICHIGAN ROTARY WEB-PRESS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 21, 1907.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY F. BEQHMAN, of Battle Creek, in the county of Calhoun and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Rotary Web- Presses; and I hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference bein had to the accompaform part of this specification.

This invention is an improvement in rotary web-printing presses, and its object is to provide a press of large capacity, and in which the webs will run straight from the rolls through the printing mechanisms to the folders and can be assembled thereat, the webs entering at one side of the press and passing to the folders at the opposite side of the press without any lateral deflection or bends in the web and without any turners or angle bars being required between the web rolls and the folder formers.

The invention is an improvement upon the press shown in my Patent No. 814,510 dated March 6, .1906, and contains a number of sections, four being shown in the drawing, each section containing two plate and two impression cylinders. The plate cylinders, as shown, can carry eight plates. On straight run non=collecting printing the plates on opposite sides of each cylinder are duplicates, so that in such case each section would print eight pages for each half rotation of the cylinder and no collecting of thesheets will be necessary and the, product of each section would be eight pages.

The product of each section can be folded separately if desired so that in this arrangement the press could produce four eight page papers simultaneously; or by assembling the products of two or more sections I can produce papers in multiples of eight pages up to thirty-two pages. If desired, the size of the papers can e increased, although the speed of their production will lie-correspondingly reduced, by having each plate cylinder carry eight separate and distinct page plates. This arrangement necessitates collecting the sheets at the folder and in such case the product of each section would be sixteen pages 1 collected, and of the complete press any multiple of sixteen pages up to sixty-four ages. In this case the webs may be assembled efore cutting, and collected after cutting, forthe pages printed by the set of plates on one side of eachcylinder must be assembled side by side with the ages printed by the othersets of plates on t e cylinders. Either arrangement of the plates, and the assembling and collecting of the webs and papers will be in-. stantly understood by pressmen, and needs no detailed explanation herein. Of course the double size papers produced by the collecting process are produced only one-half as rapidly as the single-sizeapers, although at each operation of the mac ine the same number of pages can be printed.

Obviously any section'of the press can be used to print less than eight pages, or any multiple of two pages up to eight without collecting, by using a proper narrow width web, and I can use one or more sections printing full-width webs in combination with another section or sections printin narrow width web or webs, and assemble t ese webs at the folder or folders, to produce papers of an unusual number of pa es, as fourteen, eighteen, twenty-two, etc. can also in this machine simultaneously produce a number of papers of the same or different sizes, as for examples, I can simultaneously produce four eight page papers; or two twelve page papers or one twelve and one sixteen page papers; or one thirty-two page paper or twenty page paper;

in fact papers of any desired size up to the limit of the press can be produced.

The ress'is so constructed that it has two rows of perfecting mechanisms arranged in parallel, andeach row may contain two or more sets of perfecting mechanisms which are arranged end to end and closely ad acent, and preferably all the plate cylinders are in thesame horizontal plane, and access can be had to all the cylinders from the floor, and in fact every part of the presscan be reachedfrom the floor, so that the pressman in making ready the press, or in adjusting the parts, does not have to climb into or over any portions of the mah1ne,-as is necessary in the heretofore known large rotary presses, and by reason of this low-down arrangement the press can be erected in a basement or in low-ceilinged rooms, and does not require a special construction of press-room. It contains all the advantages of my said patented rotary press while practically greatly enlarging the capacity and flexibility of such machine.

I will now describe the press with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a top planview of the complete machine; Fig. 2 1s a side elevation thereof; Fig. 3 is a transverse section of the press on line 22, Fig. 1. Figs. 4, 5, 6, 7 and Sam diagrammatical views illustrating how papers of different sizes can be produced on the machine.

The press as shown has four sets of perfecting mechanisms A, B, D, each comprising two plate cylinders 1, 1 and co-acting impression cylinders 2, 2. These mechanisms are arranged in two rows at opposite sides of the press, the cylinders in the. adjacent mechanisms being arranged longitudinally of the press, the adjacent sets of cylinders being end to end, and all the cylinders being in substantially the same horizontal plane and lying close to the floor, so that all the outermost cylinders 1 1 can be easily reached by the pressman from the outer sides of the press; and the inner cylinders 1, 1, of the adjacent rows are sufficiently separated to leave an alley-way so that the pressman can easily walk between the two rows to put the plates on and off the inner cylinders while standing on the floor.

Each cylinder is provided with a related set of inking mechanism 3, 3 which is constructed preferably as described in my Pat-' ent No. 823,098, of June 12, 1906, and needs no particular description herein, the inking mechanism, however, being also extended longitudinally of the press and being co'nveniently accessible from the outer sides and alley-way thereof at all times.

The cylinders in each set are intergeared as indicated in the drawings, so that they can be rotated synchronously and may be driven by trains of gears 4 from gears 4* on the main driving shaft 4. Each section may be directly geared to the main shaft 4, as indicated in Fig. 2, and by making one of the gears in each train of gears 4 removable, or shiftable on its shaftinto or out of mesh with the others, any of the perfecting mechanisms can be put in or out of operation at the will of the operator.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 3, a web w may be led in from roll W under and over guides 55, 5 through the perfecting mechanism A, then up over guide 5 across the machine to and under a guide 5, being slit at or before reaching this guide by a slitter as at S, then the adjacent halves of the webs may pass directly to and over the formers F, F located beside the perfecting mechanism B at the side of the press opposite the roll W, and each half of the web to may, if desired, be folded separately, in which case,when printing in the straight non-collecting method, the product of the web W will be two 4 page papers. Similarly the web may be led from a roll W under and over guides 6, 6 to and through the perfecting mechanism B, (which is at the side of the press .0 posite mechanism A, but parallel with the latter,)' and then passed over guides 6 and 6 down and around guide 6 and up and over guide 6, to the formers F, F the web to being first slitt'ed at a convenient point after being printed, as by means of the slitter S located adjacent the roller 6, the two webs w, 10 being assembled on the formers F, F and thuswith the straight-line non-collecting method, 8page papers will be delivered at each folder. Similarly a web to may beled in from roll W to and through the printing mechanism 0, which is in axial almement with the mechanism A, and passed over guides similar to those used for web w to folder formers F F at the same side of the press as formers. F and F, but beside the printing mechanism D. While another web to may be led from roll W in a manner similar to web w to and through the perfecting mechanism D, and assembled with web 10 on the formers F, F.

Each former is provided with the usual first fold rolls (j",' f, f" respectively), at itsapex; and adjacent each former is a webfolding mechanism G, G G, G which may be of the usual construction, and adjacent 9 each folding mechamsin 1s acollector H, H

H H, also of ordinary construction, therefore said folding and collecting devices are simply diagrammatically indicated in the drawings as their construction and mode of operation are well understood.

Adjacent the a ex of former F may be laced a web guiffe gyand at the apex of ormers F F may be laced web guides g and at the apex o former F may he placed a web guide 9 these guides being used in assembling the webs as hereinafter ex laincd.

f each plate cylinder carries two sets of 4 single-page plates, the roduct of each section Will be 8 pages, and with the webs running to the formers, as above described (that is one-half of each web to, to former F and the other half w, w" to former F and half of each web w, w to former F and the other halves of webs w and w to former F, as indicated in Fig. 4), the product of the machine will be four 8 page papers delivered from folders G, G G, G without collecting.

If desired, the two halves of webs w, 112 can be assembled after passing the formers F, F 2 by leading one-half of the webs, say those passing over former F from the first fold rolls f under guide g to and over guide 9 and down into folder G and the two halves of the webs w and to can be brought together in the folder G as indicated in Fig. 5 of the drawings. In this manner two 16 page papers can be delivered simultaneously from the machine on a straight non-collcctr 0 ing run. Again if desired, all the webs delivered from the several formers can be assembled at one folder G as indicated in Fig. 2 of the drawing, which with the non-collecting method, would produce a 32 page paper.

could be produced by using the collectors H,

H and by assembling the webs, as shown in Fig. 2 and using collector H one vti l-page paper could be produced.

By using a narrow width web in some of the perfecting mechanisms, and full width webs in others, papers of any desired number of pages can be produced. Thus threequar tor-width webs could be used in mechanisms D, and a half-width web in mechanisms A, B, which will produce a twenty page paper without collecting, or by collecting produce a 40 page paper; but in producing papers of such size whenit is not desired to run the entire press, a full width web could be printed in sections A, B, to produce 16 pages, and a four page web could be printed in section D or C. Again, two 12 page papers non-collecting (or 24 pages collecting) could be'produced by running f ull-width webs in sections f, D, and half-width webs in sections A, B, and again dividing the halves of the full width webs printed on sections C, D, before passing over former F and directing threequartcrs of such webs to the folder G and lead the other. quarters of these webs to the folder G and assembling it there with the half width webs printed on mechanisms A, B. Again, two different sized papers can be produced simultaneously; for example, full width webs could be printed on mechanisms (7, D, and three-quarter width webs on mechanisms A, B; the halves of webs could be again split before passing over former F and three-fourths of the webs could be assembled and folded at G, while the other fourth of such webs could be led over to folder G and assembled thereat with the three-quarter width webs printed on mechanisms A, B,

' and of course, in the examples illustrated in Figs. 7 and 8, if the collecting method was employed, the size of the paper produced would be doubled.

Ihe foregoing will impart a clear idea of the flexibility of the press, and the large variety of papers which can be produced thereon. and it will be observed that it can be operated at very high speed because. the papers are not turned or deflected from their path until they have passed the formers, and by providing as many formers as there are perfecting mechanisms, I am able to take care of the product of all the mechanisms at any desired speed, and by having the folding 'mechanisms all adjacent and in line, the

webs can be directed into any one or more of them.

By this construction of press a low-down simple high speed press of great capacity and variety of product is produced; and the capacity of such press can be increased readily by increasing the number of perfecting mechanisms in the rows, or by superposing another tier of such mechanisms above the ground tier.

Having described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a rotary printing press, the combination of two parallel series of rotary perfecting mechanisms arranged in substantially the same plane, each series containing two rotary perfecting mechanisms end to end, the cylin 4 ders in each mechanism extending longitudinally of the press, and all the cylinders being in substantially the same plane; with a corresponding number of formers at one side of the press, folding mechanisms adjacent the formers, guides for directing webs through each perfecting mechanism straight to the formers without lateral deflection of the webs, and means whereby the webs can be directed into the same or any separate folding mechanism. 2. In a rotaryv printing press, the combination of parallel series of rotary perfecting mechanisms arranged in substantially the same plane each seriescomprising a plurality of rotary perfecting mechanisms arranged end to end, the cylinders in each mechanism extending longitudinally of the press; with a corresponding number of formers at one side of the press, a folding mechanism, adjacent each former guides for directing webs through each perfecting mechanism straight to the formers without lateral deflection of the webs, means for slitting the webs, and means whereby the sections of the webs can be directed into any folder.

3. The herein described rotary press, comprising two parallel series of perfecting mech anisms arranged insubstantially'the same plane each series comprising a plurality of erfecting mechanisms arranged end to end lbngitudinally of the press, the cylinders in the several mechanisms being in substantially the same horizontal plane, a corresponding number of formers at one side of the press, means for directing the webs printed on the perfecting mechanisms into the adjacent formers without lateral deflection of the webs, means for slitting the webs before reaching the'formers, a folding mechanism beside each former, guides for directing the webs through the press, and means whereby the webs may be directed from any former into any folder.

4. The herein described rotary press, comprising two parallel series of perfecting mechanisms, each series comprising two perfecting mechanisms arranged end to end longitudinally of the press, the cylinders in the several mechanisms being in substantially the same horizontal plane, a former for each mechanism at one side of the press, means for directing the webs printed on transversely adjacent perfecting mechanisms into the relative adjacent formers without lateral deflection of the webs, means for slitting the webs before reaching the formers, a folding mechanism beside each former, guides for directing the webs through the press, and means whereby the webs or sections thereof may be directed from any former into any folder.

5. In a rotary printing press, the combination of parallel series of rotary perfecting mechanisms, each series comprising a plurality of rotary perfecting mech; aisms, the cylinders in each mechanism extending longitudinally of the press; with a corresponding number of formers at one side of the press, a folding mechanism, adjacent each former guides for directing Webs through each per-- fecting mechanism straight to the formers without lateral deflection of the webs, means for slitting the webs, and means whereby the sections of the webs can be directed into any folder with a collector adjacent each folding mechanism, and means for driving the several perfecting mechanisms in unison.

6. In a rotary printing press, the combination of two parallel series of rotary perfecting mechanisms in substantially the same plane, each series comprising two rotary perfecting mechanisms, the cylinders in each mechan' ism extending longitudinally of the press, and all the cylinders being in substantially the same plane; with a corresponding number of formers at one side of the press, a folding mechanism adjacent each former, guides for directing webs through each perfecting mechanism straight to the formers without lateral deflection of the webs; means for operating the perfecting mechanisms in unison, and means whereby one or more of the perfecting mechanisms may be put out of operation; with a collector adjacent to each folding mechanism, and means for driving the several perfect-ing mechanisms in unison.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own, I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

HENRY F. BECHMAN.

Witnesses:

CHARLES A. GRAMEs, F. W. DUNNING. 

